page_title: Dortmund
section_title: Recreation
hierarchical_section_title: Dortmund / Culture / Recreation
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Северный Рейн-Вестфалия, Дортмунд - телебашня Florianturm
context_page_description: Dortmund is with a population of 603,609 inhabitants as of 2020, the third-largest city of Germany's most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia and Germany's eighth-largest city. It is the largest city of the Ruhr, Germany's largest urban area with some 5.1 million inhabitants, as well as the largest city of Westphalia. On the Emscher and Ruhr rivers, it lies in the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region and is considered the administrative, commercial, and cultural centre of the eastern Ruhr. Dortmund is the second largest city in the Low German dialect area after Hamburg.
  Founded around 882, Dortmund became an Imperial Free City. Throughout the 13th to 14th centuries, it was the "chief city" of the Rhine, Westphalia, and the Netherlands Circle of the Hanseatic League. During the Thirty Years' War, the city was destroyed and decreased in significance until the onset of industrialization. The city then became one of Germany's most important coal, steel and beer centres. Dortmund consequently was one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany during World War II. The devastating bombing raids of 12 March 1945 destroyed 98% of buildings in the inner city center.
context_section_description: The Botanischer Garten Rombergpark, or informally Rombergpark, is an extensive municipal arboretum and botanical garden located in the south of the city center of Dortmund. With its total area of 65 hectares the Rombergpark is one of the largest botanical gardens in the world. The garden was established in 1822 as the Romberg family's English landscape park. In 1927-1929 it was acquired by the city and under city planning director Richard Nose enhanced by a small herb garden. The park and castle were badly damaged in World War II, but starting in 1950 director Gerd Krüssmann rebuilt it as an arboretum, adding some 4500 species to the park. Today the garden contains a historic English landscape park with monuments; an arboretum containing thousands of species of woody plants, including some of the largest trees in North Rhine-Westphalia; a terrace with palm trees; and four greenhouses (1000 m² total area) for cactus and succulents, ferns, tropical plants, and camellias, jasmine, and lemons.
  The Dortmund Zoo is the zoological garden with 28 hectares next to the Rombergpark and was founded 1953. With 1,800 animals belonging to 250 species the Dortmund Zoo is the second largest in the Ruhr Valley. It is specialized in the keeping and breeding of South American species and is leading in the breeding of the giant anteater, the tamandua and the giant otter.
  The Westfalenpark is Dortmunds's most popular inner-city park. The park is 72 hectares in size and is one of the largest urban gardens of Germany. It was first opened in 1959 as the second Bundesgartenschau (abbr. BUGA) in North Rhine-Westphalia. With the National Rosarium with 3,000 different rose varieties, theme gardens, an environmental protection centre, the German Cookbook Museum, a geological garden, cafés and recreation areas, it provides numerous opportunities for a day of diverse activities. Dortmund's Westfalenpark is also a popular location for events in the Ruhr area- with parties, festivals, events, theatre, music, and flea and garden markets. One of the best views across the whole Ruhr valley is offered by the visitors platform and the revolving restaurant in the 209-metre-high Florian tower. Another summer attraction is the chair lift, which opened in 1959 and runs on Sundays between a “Mountain” and “Valley” station 500 metres apart.
caption: Florianturm, Westfalenpark
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